1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
This invention relates to the field of ovens and particularly to the field of impingement ovens.
2. Background Art
Toaster ovens have been popular to heat food, including sandwiches, pizzas and other items, for some time. These toaster ovens typically incorporate heating elements that radiate heat to toast or warm the food items. Over the years improvements to those conventional toaster ovens have included microwave ovens that utilize microwave energy to heat the food, and convection ovens that utilized forced air blown over and around the food. Problems have arisen with these ovens as different portions of the food items may require different heat at different times. For example, in toasting open face sandwiches, the bread will often become too crispy or even burned before the cheeses and meats have reached the desired temperature. Another example with sandwiches is that the bread becomes soft or even soggy from the effects of microwave oven cooking.
One improvement to these ovens to solve this problem is the creation of conveyor ovens. These ovens convey the food item through the oven at a set rate or under the direction of an operator to better ensure even heating of the items. However, these types of ovens do not operate particularly well with microwave or convection ovens, and still fail to ensure that different portions of the food item are heated properly.
Another solution to these problems was the creation of impingement ovens. Impingement ovens that blow forced columns of hot air or vapor at localized areas of the food were also created particularly to bake pizza. These ovens are particularly useful to ensure heating at specific locations of the food item.
Impingement ovens have also recently been utilized with conveyors for use in heating food items such as pizza or sandwiches. Examples of typical impingement conveyor ovens include ovens manufactured by Star Manufacturing International, Inc., Holman Cooking Equipment Division, by Lincoln Food Services, Inc. and by Middleby Marshall. These ovens include conveyors that pass the food item by impingement jets of forced hot air.
However, these ovens do not solve the problem of ensuring proper toasting of bread and other particular issues. One issue that arises in using impingement ovens or radiant heating ovens with bread items is that the edges of bread or crust, particularly where those edges are exposed differently than the bottom surfaces, tend to become crispy or burnt at a faster rate than the bottom surfaces.
These and other problems exist in the current technology associated with ovens. Thus, a need arises in providing an oven that allows for consistent heating or toasting of food items with minimal operator control.